Talk:Setup email

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Revision as of 23:40, 31 January 2007 by Nad (talk | contribs) (Thanks for that - send-to-email is damn useful :-))

Bid for working mail

  • login instructions here
  • please give me a bid for getting email to work on wikiexpert.com just as it did on div0.com (phalseid)
this Div0 article works, whereas this Wikiexpert article does not. (there is link in the toolbox to the left to send any article to an email address)
The article re email problems is Setup email. It doesn't need anything fancy, it just needs to be able to send email - usually our Debian installs come with exim4 which works fine, but it somehow broke on the wikiexpert server, we couldn't fix it, tried changing to postfix but no go, now it's back to exim4, but won't work. It means that mail can't be sent from PHP/MediaWiki so we can't send articles to maillist, or notify of talk page changes etc --Nad 20:30, 29 Jan 2007 (NZST)
Email-article.php, Email-text.php we use this as a data event.
  • the mail server is installed but not configured correctly such that:
    • PHP's mail() function isn't sending mail
    • others?
Nothing else needed, php's mail() is most important so the wiki can send mails
  • maybe xmlwiki has some coding that needs to happen. Something about headers
  • perhaps DNS/ MX record ... something
  • From what I see, mail doesn't need to be incoming, just outgoing, and that postfix is the preferred mail server.
exim4 is preferred as that's what's installed on Debian by default, postfix was only tried after exim4 broke. --Nad 21:27, 29 Jan 2007 (NZST)
no need for incoming, just outgoing is important --Nad 21:27, 29 Jan 2007 (NZST)

___Epte's bid for mailer configuration___

$100, available within a day or two

I will pay the 100.00i . be sure to document here. --Phalseid 02:09, 30 Jan 2007 (NZST)

Requirements

  • email (exim4 preferred by client, postfix 2nd choice) configuration to send mail, not receiving
Actually if you prefer a different mail server, use what you like - whatever gets php's mail() working again --Nad 23:59, 29 Jan 2007 (NZST)
After next server rebuild we would be back on exim4 again, but would prefer to avoid a server rebuild just to get mail going --Nad 23:59, 29 Jan 2007 (NZST)
In which case, you would just copy the relevant conf files from the old server to the new one, whether it be exim4 or postfix, yes? Epte 00:15, 30 Jan 2007 (NZST)
A server rebuild would nuke the whole OS and put it back to a working state, but would take a few hours work. --Nad 00:56, 30 Jan 2007 (NZST)

OR

  • determine that mail is not the problem

Assumptions (if not present, may cost extra)

  • If a correctly configured mailer were present and running, a sent email would reach its destination (e.g. no firewall, DNS resolution, PHP, or XMLWiki problems)
  • I'm dealing with stock exim4 and postfix configurations

Acceptance Tests

  • when TESTSITE works, the project is done

Definitions

Questions

  • Which is preferred (if any): exim4 monolithic config, or exim4 conf.d config?
Don't mind, there'll be no config done to it again once working --Nad 23:57, 29 Jan 2007 (NZST)
  • Has there been any customizations to either?
We usually just leave it exactly as the default install with no changes as our only use for it is php's mail() --Nad 23:57, 29 Jan 2007 (NZST)

Mail install results

I reinstalled postfix, being more familiar with it. A commandline sendmail-command test showed that there was no route to host on port 25. A tcptraceroute dump confirms that outgoing port 25 is being blocked by a firewall:

wikiexpert:/etc/postfix# tcptraceroute gmail.com 25 Selected device venet0, address 68.178.204.110, port 36335 for outgoing packets Tracing the path to gmail.com (64.233.171.83) on TCP port 25 (smtp), 30 hops max 

1  ip-68-178-201-243.ip.secureserver.net (68.178.201.243)  0.093 ms  0.026 ms  0.017 ms
2  ip-68-178-191-252.ip.secureserver.net (68.178.191.252)  0.490 ms !A * 43.613 ms !A

The assumption was that I wouldn't have network issues, so I expect to be compensated an additional $30 for the extra half hour debugging your network.

At this point, you need to petition your network administrator to allow outbound SMTP (port 25) traffic. Otherwise, no mail program will be able to work for you.

If within the next two months your network issue is resolved, I will try this again. Otherwise, I must close the ticket at that point and bill you for $130. If we do this again in the future, it will be under a new ticket.

Epte 02:46, 31 Jan 2007 (NZST)

i have sent the ticket to godaddy....--Phalseid 02:52, 31 Jan 2007 (NZST)
I don't understand your reasoning, but you're right it's being blocked, I found some notes of similar trouble with godaddy servers and put
relayhost = k2smtpout.secureserver.net
into main.cf which has fixed it --Nad 10:33, 31 Jan 2007 (NZST)
Regarding sending mail from the commandline, that removes PHP/apache from the picture to isolate the error.
Regarding the tcptraceroute, as with traceroute, the !A usually implies a rejected packet. Being two hops away would seem to indicate a firewall of your hosting company. The tcptraceroute was done from port 25, so essentially I was testing connectivity for mail from wikiexpert to elsewhere. I just wasn't sure for a bit there whether it was something local or something network-wise that was causing me to not connect on port 25. After trying some other tests, the tcptraceroute nailed it.Epte 23:14, 31 Jan 2007 (NZST)
Well thanks a lot anyany, I'd forgotten how useful it is to be able to send articles to email ;-)
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